History and Mission

The Board of Directors established this committee in 1930 to encourage all persons with an interest in mammals to become members of the Society. No restrictions as to age or education are placed on members of ASM (Gill and Wozencraft, 1994).

Responsibilities

In recent years an emphasis has been placed on making new members feel at home in the society and encouraging retention of members by writing welcoming letters to new members, pursuing any problems in the mailing of journals, and writing two-year delinquents to determine their reason for dropping membership. Also, letters are written to nonmember authors who publish in the Journal of Mammalogy explaining the benefits of ASM membership and encouraging them to join the society. The committee has been instrumental in retaining members; short-term memberships are a financial drain on the society.

The committee also is involved in sending back volumes of the Journal of Mammalogy to mammalogists and in arranging for sponsorships of ASM memberships for individuals or institutions outside of North America that cannot afford to buy journals or pay annual dues. Geographic balance (national and international) in the composition of this committee is important.

As a member of ASM, you are sustaining a vital forum where information from various scientific disciplines is shared and integrated through a single nexus: mammals. Your membership supports ASM activities such as production of the Journal of Mammalogy and Mammalian Species, organization of our annual meetings, and fostering the next generation of mammalogists through our student programs. ASM recognizes contributions to Mammalogy through our various awards and promotes the interests of mammalogists through the activities of our committees. For example, ASM committees review and accredit systematic collections, regularly review and revise mammalian taxonomy, provide taxon-specific guidelines for animal care and use in research, and promote mammalian conservation through resolutions and position letters.